LO-300 engine

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:11 am

Recently I came across an old Plane & Pilot magazine from May 1987. Browzing thru it,I found an interesting news release from TCM:
" Teledyne Continental Motors,Aircraft Products Division (TCM),recently introduced it's new model Voyager-200 & Voyager-300 four- and six-cylinder liquid-cooled,aircraft piston engines.
The model Voyager-200 is a major development in aircraft engines. It is a four-cylinder,liquid-cooled 200 cubic inch engine capable of developing 110 bhp at 2750 rpm. The Voyager-200 engine incorporates a lightweight cylinder design with combustion chamber improvements aimed at minimizing fuel consumption.
The six-cylinder 300 cubic inch version will also be available utilizing the same cylinder assembly with a standard production crankcase. This engine is capable of being rated at 170 to 190 bhp at 2700 to 3000 rpm."
The engine pictured with the article looks like a standard O-200 case with four weird-looking cylinders attached (each with the familiar old Continental valve cover) along with fuel injection.
I kinda remember hearing something before about these Voyager LO-200 engines--LO standing for Liquid-cooled Opposed-- but never heard anything about an LO-300 version. I can sure live without liquid cooling & all the plumbing that goes with it,but would sure like to see some aircooled cylinders made available with the "combustion chamber improvements" they talk about. It'd be pretty nice to pump the old C-145/O-300 up to 170 horses without even increasing the rpm range! That's a 17% power increase,with virtually no weight increase. No engine mount/cowl/baffle/exhaust mods either. Yee haw!

Eric

Dave Clark · Post by **Dave Clark** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:22 pm

Yeah, whatever happened to them? Too many expensive STC's to get for all the airframes out there?

At my IA refresher I sat in on a forum by Wayne Gretsky (sp?) from Lycoming. He stated privately to me that Lycoming has something big in the works that is "going to make a huge difference in GA". The way he put it was really serious. Time will tell.

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:56 pm

We've been hearing that for at least as long as the 9 years I been flying: "this is gonna save (or rejuvenate) general aviation!" Let's see,that was said about
1) the recreational pilot license (didn't happen)
2) the sport pilot license (still waiting)
3) light-sport aircraft ( still waiting-plus it ain't gonna work anyway--too small & too expensive)
4) new (diesel?) engines from everybody (too expensive to adapt to old airframes)
For the average guy,what you see (now) is what you get.

Eric

Dave Clark · Post by **Dave Clark** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:09 pm

Almost 30 years flying now and every year that passes I see why Experimental Homebuilt is such a growth area. Even I think about it, like the new Glastar Sportsman, but then I come to my senses.